[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22503]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WELCOME CHANGE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Madam Speaker, as a strong opponent of the war in Iraq 
from the very beginning, I welcome the change in leadership at the 
Department of Defense. After years of hearing shifting rationales for 
the preemptive military strike launched by the Bush administration, the 
American public deserves a realistic evaluation of the conflict which 
has cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives.
  It was sobering to hear Robert Gates, the nominee for Secretary of 
Defense, acknowledge yesterday that we are not winning the war in Iraq 
despite repeated reassurances to the contrary by the former Defense 
Secretary. Those of us who made the case in October of 2002 that we 
should not rush to war until the weapons inspectors had completed their 
work are deeply saddened that this unnecessary war has taken such a 
heavy toll and diminished the standing of the United States around the 
world.
  I look forward to examining the recommendations of the bipartisan 
Iraq Study Group so that we can try to find our way out of this 
quagmire that was created by the rush to war based on faulty or, even 
worse, deliberately distorted intelligence.

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